On November 4, 2008 Barrack Hussein Obama made history by winning the presidential election of the United States of America. He is the first African-American to become our president.
As I sat and watched the votes come in, I could not help but think that this was the first presidential election that I ever really followed. I watched a couple of the debates, I did the research on line to learn how our voting system works (there was always a big mystery around the Electoral College and how it works), I even researched the history of the republican and democratic parties. Barrack made me want to learn more about how our system works.
When he won I had a sense of joy that I could not express in words. I just sat there with my wife and asked myself a whole series of questions. Why am I so happy? Is it simply because he is a Black man? It was more than that. That night was the first time I felt like I was part of the United States instead of just being in the United States.
I had a nervous, so what do we do now, energy that made me think of the college recruiting process. It is one thing to get someone into college, it is a totally different thing to actually keep them there and make sure they are successful. I felt that America, Black America in particular did a good job of getting Barrack into office, but how do we support him now that he is there. I did not have an answer for that, but I kept my eyes and ears open as days passed from that November day to the recent chilly inauguration day in Washington D.C.
Part of my trip to D.C. included post inauguration bonding time riding the D.C. trains in search of souvenirs to take back home. It was just too busy during the day to try and grab anything then. During my train ride with two other Black gents, one I’ve known since high school and another I’ve known for a couple of months, we began to talk about what we can do to make this presidency a great one. We discussed what we have heard from some other Black people regarding the thought of, “No more excuses”, but decided that we wanted to look at a statement in the affirmative as opposed to the negative (the use of the word “no” in the statement makes it negative). We searched for the opposite of the word “excuses” and came up with accountability and responsibility. So the focus would be on being accountable and taking responsibility for our actions and successes. A later conversation with one of my mentors led me to two additional things we can do to make this presidency and country thrive; service and staying connected to what is going on politically. It has inspired me to create a list of 101 ways to be a civic servant. “Everybody can be great because everybody can serve” in the words of Dr. King. Our new president has inspired me to do just that, serve.
How about you? What has Barrack Obama being elected as president meant to you?
What to help me write my list of 101 ways to serve? Visit my blog www.runthepoint.blogspot.com to contribute.
As I sat and watched the votes come in, I could not help but think that this was the first presidential election that I ever really followed. I watched a couple of the debates, I did the research on line to learn how our voting system works (there was always a big mystery around the Electoral College and how it works), I even researched the history of the republican and democratic parties. Barrack made me want to learn more about how our system works.
When he won I had a sense of joy that I could not express in words. I just sat there with my wife and asked myself a whole series of questions. Why am I so happy? Is it simply because he is a Black man? It was more than that. That night was the first time I felt like I was part of the United States instead of just being in the United States.
I had a nervous, so what do we do now, energy that made me think of the college recruiting process. It is one thing to get someone into college, it is a totally different thing to actually keep them there and make sure they are successful. I felt that America, Black America in particular did a good job of getting Barrack into office, but how do we support him now that he is there. I did not have an answer for that, but I kept my eyes and ears open as days passed from that November day to the recent chilly inauguration day in Washington D.C.
Part of my trip to D.C. included post inauguration bonding time riding the D.C. trains in search of souvenirs to take back home. It was just too busy during the day to try and grab anything then. During my train ride with two other Black gents, one I’ve known since high school and another I’ve known for a couple of months, we began to talk about what we can do to make this presidency a great one. We discussed what we have heard from some other Black people regarding the thought of, “No more excuses”, but decided that we wanted to look at a statement in the affirmative as opposed to the negative (the use of the word “no” in the statement makes it negative). We searched for the opposite of the word “excuses” and came up with accountability and responsibility. So the focus would be on being accountable and taking responsibility for our actions and successes. A later conversation with one of my mentors led me to two additional things we can do to make this presidency and country thrive; service and staying connected to what is going on politically. It has inspired me to create a list of 101 ways to be a civic servant. “Everybody can be great because everybody can serve” in the words of Dr. King. Our new president has inspired me to do just that, serve.
How about you? What has Barrack Obama being elected as president meant to you?
What to help me write my list of 101 ways to serve? Visit my blog www.runthepoint.blogspot.com to contribute.
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